As is so often the case with legal services markets considering liberalization, the opening of Malaysia’s legal market to foreign law firms is a debate that has gone on for longer than many lawyers in the country care to remember. And while Malaysia may be no closer to allowing UK or US firms to establish offices in Kuala Lumpur than Korea or India, local firms in the country are busily making preparations to ensure that they maintain their market position.
“It’s still ambiguous which direction it would go but we are preparing ourselves for liberalisation. The bar council has made certain recommendations to the Attorney-General’s office. We are unsure of the outcome of those discussions,” Jeff Leong, Poon & Wong managing partner, Jeff Leong, said.
Preparations to meet foreign competition include plans to double headcount from 35 to 75 in the next three years via a series of mergers, lateral hires and organic growth. In March, the firm beefed up its M&A and takeovers/takeover defence practice group by appointing Michael Lim, a former senior partner of Shearn Delamore and one of Malaysia’s most experienced corporate, M&A and takeovers lawyers, as a consultant. “We are now called upon by the corporate sector and the investment banking community to advise on complex takeover transactions under Malaysia’s new Takeover Code”, says Leong.
Effective problem solving is another important focus of the firm, and in April, the firm as professional indemnity insurance lawyers, successfully defended another law firm against a US$29.7m IPO law suit in a landmark case that dealt with the responsibilities and liabilities of IPO lawyers. “The combined resources and expertise of our capital markets and dispute resolution practice groups made a real difference to our client in that case”, Leong explained.
The firm has hitherto kept a low profile and not many will know that the founding partners were part of the cross border corporate, M&A and capital markets practice group of one of Singapore’s leading law firms in the 1990s. That has changed as the firm began responding to requests from legal industry publications for submission of firm information and deal flows this year.
According to Leong, this is necessary so that the unique strengths and capabilities of the firm are known. For instance, apart from an active practice advising Western MNCs, the firm has a strong bilingual China Desk and trains up to 10 Japanese law interns every year. Leong himself teaches Asian Law at Kobe University Law School, Japan and is heavily involved in econo legal studies research with the university on relational contracts and structuring business transactions. “In a world where China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are taking centre stage in the next decade, a sound and practical understanding of relational contracts and structuring successful business relationships in an Asian context is critical”, says Leong who actively handles transactions from these Asian markets.
The firm’s past transactional and dispute resolution experience in industries such as Oil & Gas, Oil Palm, Mining, Steel, Financial Services, Aviation, Shipping, Insurance and Capital Markets will help level the playing field with foreign competitors. So too its affiliations with regional law firm Deacons, international law firm network Interlex and China’s largest law firm Dacheng, all of which will provide wider access to the resources, experience and expertise of the firm’s affiliate law firm partners.
An indepth analysis of trends in the Malaysian legal industry can be found in the ALB Special Report on Malaysia in our next issue. ALB